This post could also be called Part Two of the post I wrote explaining the recent findings of cell phones disturbing brain metabolism. What do cell phones and the microwave have in common? Let me start at the beginning.
We don’t use a microwave at all. We haven’t in several years… and yes, I understand that microwaving uses non-ionizing radiation, just like the non-ionizing radiation in light, TV, radio waves, etc… Most folks feel okay using a microwave once they figure out that it is not the same as the ionizing radiation in X-rays, nuclear radiation, etc…
For us, it’s not the radiation issue… although non-ionizing radiation isn’t turning out to be as safe as initially thought. I’m not worried about standing near a microwave and I don’t mind knowing that when I eat at a restaurant, much of what they serve has been quick-zapped in a microwave to reheat.
For us, it’s the affect the microwaves have directly on the food.
As I recently explained, even non-ionizing radiation can cause abnormal effects on human tissue. Just as chronic exposure to non-ionizing radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer to develop, non-ionizing radiation from cell phones has been found to increase the likelihood of brain tumors. Recently, scientists have figured out why. The radiation from extended cell phone use actually changes the metabolism of the brain — hyperstimulating it and changing the cellular processes in a portion of the brain on the side of the phone usage.
For the same reason, the radiation used in microwaving has fallen under scrutiny again. Microwaves work by causing food molecules (specifically, the water in the food) to vibrate and create thermic heat. While this is old news (and honestly, ALL food heats up by heating up the water molecules in food, the microwave just does it faster and is more disruptive, with more vibration among the food molecules) scientists are beginning to understand it is more than just the thermic heat causing a change in the food that is microwaved.
It all started to gain press in 1992, when doctors at Stanford University found that breast milk that was heated by microwaving lost its protective properties… microwaving disrupted the immune boosting effects of the breast milk out of proportion to the effects of high heat alone. So it was something more than just the thermic heat on the breast milk that made the immune protective elements and vitamins of the breast milk decline dramatically.
There was also a highly publicized case of a woman who died in surgery after a nurse microwaved the blood used to transfuse into her, instead of heating up the blood normally. The microwaved blood, it was suggested, did not act as normal blood and caused death.
Fast forward to now. Lots and lots of awareness about the damaging effects of radiation from the sun on unprotected skin. More and more information is coming to light about the supposedly *benign* effects of non-ionizing radiation… hence the cell phone study… but for me it goes beyond the radiation exposure.
It is the damaging effect of microwaves on the nutrition of the food. Beginning with that initial experiment on human breast milk, many other studies have now shown that microwaving ruins the vitamin content of the food we are heating.
All methods of cooking thermally heat the water in the foods, and all methods denature proteins and destabilize vitamins. But microwaving is approximately 9 X more destructive than heating in more conventional methods (oven, stove top, steaming, grilling, etc…)
For example, microwaving broccoli reduces the antioxidants in the broccoli by 97%. Steaming the broccoli only reduces the antioxidant content by 11%. So microwaving virtually deadens the vitamin content of the broccoli.
It is pretty much the exact opposite of a raw diet. In a raw diet, you are trying to eat the majority (if not all) of your food in its raw form, which theoretically provides you with the most live, active, nutritious form of the food you are consuming. With microwaving, you are (in ways we have yet to understand) denaturing and destabilizing the nutrition right out of the food. Congratulations, we are the only species on the planet who nutritionally deadens our food before we consume it.
It seems pointless to me to take the nutrition out of our food before eating it. Especially just to use something that is completely optional and non-necessary, like a microwave.
We donated our microwave to Goodwill years ago and the transition was surprisingly easy. In fact, the only thing I miss about it was the conveinence of popping popcorn and melting butter. That’s about it. For the popcorn, we are loving the switch to our hot air popper — it reminds me of my childhood… oh how I loved to stand next to our hot air popper and watching the popcorn popping over the edge, stealing a piece here and there, and smelling the freshness!
Switching to a hot air popper has also opened me up to experiences I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise, like growing our own popcorn! Yes, it is sooo easy to grow — you just grow the corn like you would for any other corn (making sure to use heirloom popcorn seeds… we love this one from Baker Seeds) and then after harvesting the ears, let the ears of corn dry in a dark closet for two weeks… shuck the kernels into a jar and use like you would any other popcorn! We did Dakota black popcorn last year and it was amazing… we are trying strawberry popcorn this year. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes as the season progresses!
The other thing I missed was the simplicity of melting butter. For this, I’ve discovered using my electric fondue pot is almost as quick as a microwave and so very very easy to clean up afterwards. I have this one and really love it for butter, chocolate, cheeses, etc…
I can promise you that you won’t miss your microwave as much as you think you will. But if you do want to keep using it, there is one thing that microwaves are good for — sanitizing your kitchen rags and sponges. Makes sense, doesn’t it, that the damaging effects of the microwave are perfect for killing the bacteria on your kitchen rags. A few seconds in the microwave is enough to denature and kill all common household bacteria. Yet more reinforcement as to why I do not want to treat the nutritious food that I work so hard to prepare in the same manner!
I’m not paranoid about it. I full enjoy eating at restaurants and understand the food there was likely nuked. When I eat out, it is for a treat… and as such, I’m not necessarily eating out for the nutrition value of the food but more for enjoyment and family time and the ease! So for those times, I don’t mind if the vitamins in the food have been dramatically reduced, I just want to connect with the folks I’m eating with. But at home, on a regular basis, I have no interest in nutritionally deadening my food, or the food I serve my children.
Even if you love your microwave, here are some very basic guidelines to consider:
1) Never re-heat take out food in the container… they are not microwave safe (meaning that when you heat it, the plastic from the container leeches out into the food that you consume.)
2) The same thing goes for condiments and most syrup containers… mustard, mayo, cream cheese are not microwave safe, as well as re-using old yogurt, margarine and whipped topping containers… just not safe and not meant for microwave use.
3) Do not microwave in plastic bags, like grocery store bags, bread bags, produce bags. No plastic bag is microwave safe.
4) If heating microwave meals that come in a plastic tray, instead of using the tray, put the food in a glass or ceramic container. At the very least, never ever re-use the tray, they are not safe for using more then once and the product packaging should say this. Also, I would highly recommend removing the plastic film on top of the foods entirely, instead of just *venting* it.
5) Never microwave foods in plastic wrap/saran wrap/cling wrap. Never.
I hope that helps explain why we chose to toss our old microwave. Most folks assume it is from the radiation, and feel that it is a bit over-kill to toss out a microwave based on the fact that it is non-ionizing radiation. This has come up for question as we find out more and more about the damaging effects of other forms of non-ionizing radiation, including the effects of the sun and of cell phone use. However, for us, it’s more a question of destabilizing the vitamins and nutrients of the food that we use. After growing the food organically on our land, or purchasing expensive organic foods at the market… and after spending precious time preparing the foods and creating a meal, the last thing I want to do is thwart my efforts by taking 97% of the antioxidants out of it.
What say ye? Are you considering decreasing your microwave use? Have you already? Has it been a hard transition? Share your story and inspire others! Also, if you have any questions about how I heat foods now without my microwave, I would love to answer them below! xoxo
I’ve greatly reduced my microwave use in the last couple of years, and I was also surprised at how easy it was. I very rarely use it at home — I just reheat food on the stove or the oven, which makes it taste much better anyway! The one place where it’s challenging to avoid the microwave is at work, since I take my lunch there every day. I often eat salads or foods that don’t require heating, but when they do I still use the office microwave. I have switched to glass containers though and never heat up food in plastic of any kind. I’m still looking for ways to reduce my microwave use further, so thanks for this post!
I don’t microwave for these reasons plus it makes the food turn to mushy or rubbery. In regards to popcorn, you must get a Whirly Popcorn Popper. So much fun to make, and it really reminds me of making popcorn as a child. Plus the flavor is wonderful!!
I must clarify my response. I have a whirly pop(what I call it) from an antique store not the one you can buy at the store. That one is very cheaply made. Thought about this after I put this response.
Great information and makes sense to me. Thanks.
xoxoxox finally I am so greatfull that you speake about it……I have raised my children complete without micro wave and still vote against it, but everybody here in America calls me “crazy” because I don’t use micro wave as well as cell phone’s…….thank you so much….even our school kitchen didn’t have a micro wave for the food of the children…..if I just could invite people there for one day and let them taste this kind of food.
Thanks for the great post Laura! I’ve heard it’s better not to use the microwave for years but I could never find a good explanation as to why it was bad. I thought it was more hype or paranoia but I finally stopped using over a year ago due to a similar post by Dr. Mercola. I thought it would be so hard to go without it but it’s really not and a toaster oven works great for smaller things. My husband has always said food cooked in the microwave didn’t taste as good so we’re all better off without it anyway-especially our children! What’s the point of spending extra money on organic food if you are going to “nuke” all the good stuff out of it? Thanks for the great explanation and suggestions.:)
Heather I am so glad that your husband experienced this….because I feel the same way……everything I am fed a micro-waved meal it is nice and hot, but it seems to have “no” taste, I miss the fullness of my normal cooked meals in aroma flavor….awwhhhh now I understand why they started to put so much taste enhancers here in the food…..lol
Thanks Gabrielle! I didn’t even think of that! And most of the time those “taste enhancers” are some form of MSG (which can be under so many different harmless sounding names.) Scary!LOL:)
I think it’s misleading to say “increase likelihood of brain tumors” so conclusively in this post when in your previous post on that topic you admit there were serious gaps in the knowledge.
One of those gaps is probably the most significant, which is the lack of damage mechanism. I was sure this post was going to be about the recent suggestion on gradient “focusing” effects:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.5008
Hi Joe Mama!
I appreciate the link. I’ve got to be honest… I don’t understand “gradient focusing effects” — it’s over my head. I definitely don’t want to blog about something I don’t understand. I hope more info will come to light and as soon as I can make sense of advances, I will be sure to share them here for sure. One thing I do stand behind, is that it has absolutely been shown that cell phones increase the likelihood of brain tumors. Absolutely there are gaps in the knowledge… no doubt. Yet, even without understanding the mechanism of *how*, a positive correlation has been demonstrated. I don’t say it “will definitely cause” but I do say “increases the likelihood” with no hesitation. I am not paranoid about it… studies have shown that you must have prolonged exposure of something like a 50 minute cell phone call for this hyper-metabolic state to show up… certainly I still use my cell phone when I need to, but am wary of keeping my conversations shorter. I think the more we start to figure out about the effects of non-ionizing radiation it just shows to highlight how little we truly do know. I feel that way about medicine in general… I don’t think doctors really know all that much, to be honest, compared to how many things there are to figure out about the mystery of health and disease. So when the picture is incomplete, like with the cell phone/brain tumor link, or with microwaves… these are all highly optional things. Just taking them out of the equation by using them less when possible makes sense to me. I thank you so much for your comment Joe Mama and love your name!
Hmm, I must have missed something, in the only other post I could find labeled ‘cell phone’ it seems like metabolism increase was equivalent to normal talking… I agree that talking and actively listening (ie processing what people say) increases metabolism: your brain is actively working. But I can’t find any link to cell phone radiation, and I thought your earlier post was fair in saying there are significant gaps. So that’s why I’m wondering why the leap to now saying ‘conclusively shown’, etc. Maybe I missed a post.
I can understand being cautious when preliminary research comes out but I have to at least have some nominal idea of why something is occurring… correlation does not imply causation. Example: “global warming caused by lack of pirates”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/737860 I’m not sure what you are thinking of, but this is the article I was referencing in my first blog post. I think you are missing the fact that the subjects studied were not talking at all. The brain, just by having a cell phone near it, was actively working as if the person was talking, when they were not talking at all… showing that the electromagnetic waves affect brain metabolism directly. What is unclear, is if this has anything at all to do with the brain tumor link that has already been established. This is only one possible explanation, a mechanism that *might* explain the brain tumor correlation. It might not. More likely, there are other things at play that we still don’t understand… this is just one *possible* way that brain tumors are stimulated… but even if this is not THE way, it does not remove the correlation. What I hear from you is that you don’t feel this is the way tumors are stimulated… you might be right. It doesn’t remove the association, it just means we haven’t figured out the why yet. I agree with you on that we don’t have it figured out. I also feel like you seem very comfortable with cell phone use and I surely don’t want to change that! Everyone has to find their own comfort zone. On my blog, I explain how *I* feel… I certainly honor that you don’t find enough evidence for concern and I think that is totally valid too! If you wrote a blog post about how you don’t find enough evidence for concern regarding cell phone use and brain tumors, I think that would be absolutely legit too. However, my stance doesn’t change at all. The link is there… I’ve found that *I* feel better when keeping my calls shorter… that’s why my blog posts reflect that. Thanks again Joe Mama for your comment! I’m honored you have taken an interest in the topic and enjoyed your analysis! xoxo
Ok sorry, written communication is tougher, etc., I certainly agree with the second half of your post, I am only interested in this because I want to make sure I haven’t missed some study or something that would change my mind. Of course everyone has the right to draw their own conclusions, etc; again I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something. But it still sounds like a leap to me to go from “*might* explain brain tumor” to “cell phones have been found to increase likelihood of tumors”, especially without a plausible explanation. The flaws in that study have been well documented, including extremely small number of subjects (7), no normalization (why didn’t they test with non-cell phones, ie wired lines?). In my opinion the brain activity was more likely from listening and processing whatever was being said on the phone. If they said the phone was on but nobody was talking, that would be different. Reading this text is also increasing your brain metabolism. That’s all.
Well, one more thing: Alison Price is hot. More of her please.
Joe Mama, you are right. About everything being inconclusive… about written word having pitfalls… and lastly, about Alison being a cutie. I am featuring her (well… her products) again in May, so stay tuned! xoxo
When our microwave died, we decided not to buy another. Instead we bought a toaster oven which I had never used before. Its quite handy for little “heat up” jobs, breads, pizza, snacks. Its faster than the oven too. Its been about a year or so and the only thing I miss is being able to heat up liquid quickly. But I’ve since been using my electric tea kettle for hot water. Its nice not relying on the microwave actually!
I have tried decreasing microwave use for the nutritional benefit. The problem I am having is with my staple food, rice. I eat brown rice daily and it takes about 45 minutes to cook…I don’t have time to cook it multiple times a day, so I make a big pot and microwave it. Reheating in the oven didn’t work very well! I’m frustrated because I don’t want to keep using the microwave so much. And cold (refrigerated) rice is, well, ugh!
I hear you Stephie. I don’t know if this would work, but is it possible to get one of those rice cookers or a crock pot, and after it cooks, leave the heat on very very very low, so the rice stays warm? You might need to keep adding a bit of water and/or stirring it so the rice on the bottom doesn’t burn. But *if* that works (and I don’t know if it would, but might be worth a try?) they you could scoop out warm rice whenever you wanted to eat it? I’ll keep thinking and let you know if I come up with anything else!!! Love you!!! xoxo
Wow! Thanks Laura for doing the research and sharing! I’ve always been wary of microwaves, but hearing how it deadens the nutritional value?! Wow! So glad I know now!